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‘Earnest apology has bought Boris Johnson time’, ex-media advisor Guto Harri claims

13 Jan 2022 2 minute read
Guto Harri. Pic: GB News

Boris Johnson has bought himself time by “apologising earnestly”, his former media advisor Guto Harri has claimed.

The S4C Byd yn ei Le presenter suggested that the UK Prime Minister’s statement on the floor of the House of Commons on his attendance at a “bring your own booze” party in Downing Street has “taken the wind out of the sails of the outrage”.

But the broadcaster added that the situation is “incredibly toxic” in the Conservative Party and across the country.

Boris Johnson is facing calls to quit after attending the party at the No 10 garden during the first coronavirus lockdown in May 2020, when the public was banned from household mixing.

In his statement to the Commons he claimed that he had believed it to be a work event, and was “technically within the rules” but added that he should have realised how it would look to the public.

Guto Harri told Golwg 360: “This won’t be over in a week, two weeks, nor this side of the summer.

“It’s a serious situation where he’s annoyed and infuriated a large number of people across the country and has unnerved his Members of Parliament enormously.

“But through apologising earnestly, in a way that politicians are not comfortable doing, that has bought him some time.”

“He’s succeeded in taking some of a little of the wind out of the sails of the outrage across the country by now and he has created a bit of space where he can speak privately with the members of his party and letting them think hard; ‘are we really going to get rid of of someone with his electoral record, over something like this?’


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David Davies
David Davies
2 years ago

Earnest apology?

Welsh_Siôn
Welsh_Siôn
2 years ago
Reply to  David Davies

The importance of which seems to have washed over Guto.

I know it’s a wilde thing to say – but barely 24 hours ago he was saying only a ‘full grovelling apology’ was good enough.

I don’t think your man cut it, Guto.

Gill Jones
Gill Jones
2 years ago
Reply to  Welsh_Siôn

Guto is as slimy as his mate Bojo and fully deserves his OBN!

Valerie Matthews
Valerie Matthews
2 years ago

What ‘earnest apology?’ He denied and denied until his back was against the wall and then said’ it was a work event’ ANOTHER LIE! Do these people think we are all stupid??

Quornby
Quornby
2 years ago

They do think that and English voting patterns are why they think that.

Steve Duggan
Steve Duggan
2 years ago

Yes, his aim was to gain some time while hoping during that time the press will move on. In other words, he’s hoping we’ll forget about it like we’ve ‘sort’ of forgotten all his other misdemeanors. But time has run out for Johnson, he won’t escape the consequences of this latest blunder. He’ll go down taking his quislings in the Welsh Tory party with him.

Mark
Mark
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Duggan

It also gives them time to get their story straight and phones wiped clean

Mark
Mark
2 years ago

How is this clown still working in news media after his dalliance with the fascist gbn?

Welsh_Siôn
Welsh_Siôn
2 years ago
Reply to  Mark

You forget, perhaps, that he has previous experience of working for the BBC, as Johnson’s spin doctor (when the latter was Mayor of London) and he subsequently took the Murdoch shilling.

If none of that indicates a right winged tendency and (initially, at least) a perfect fit for Gee Beebies, I don’t know what is.

Quornby
Quornby
2 years ago

He’s bought nothing but contempt.

Kerry Davies
Kerry Davies
2 years ago

Errm, earnest apology? Means nothing when he leaves the chamber telling all and sundry that he still thinks he did nothing wrong. To then go into hiding suggests he knows he is done and is just waiting for the fork in his arse to turn him over. (Lou Reed)

Glan
Glan
2 years ago

And todays news is full of smoke and mirrors to take the attention from bimbo boris

Quornby
Quornby
2 years ago
Reply to  Glan

Yes some foreign tennis player who can’t enter another foreign country is only news when ministers tell a pack of lies or some peripheral royal comes unstuck.

Erisian
Erisian
2 years ago
Reply to  Quornby

But don’t overlook the schadenfreude to be had when a vocal anti-vaxer discovers that he can’t just do whatever he damn well feels like.

j humphrys
j humphrys
2 years ago

Rishi Sunak will be our next slavemaster. Join Yes Cymru and fight!

Y Cymro
Y Cymro
2 years ago

Guto Harri really knows how to get his brown nose right in there. What a sycophant. Ernest apology. Man, he’s so naive. Boris Johnson knew exactly what was going on, so don’t give that sincerity rubbish. Anyway, only today was revealed. another two “gatherings” were attended held by Boris’s staff that included wine, nibbles, singing and dancing, and this was in 2021 on the day & after Prince Philips funeral. Like I care about Prince Philip, but what I do care about are the thousands of families denied the right be with a dying family member when they followed the… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by Y Cymro
Quornby
Quornby
2 years ago

Don’t worry Guto…… The English electorate will hang Johnson “over something like this” we don’t have enough votes in Wales to do likewise which is why we need Independence ASAP.

L Edwards
L Edwards
2 years ago

It may not have impressed the public, but to buy time he only needed to influence his MPs sufficiently for them to hold off, which is what many would have been hoping they could do. Harri is, I think correct that in the immediate moment it worked well enough. How long that will last we shall see. Even if the Gray conclusion is “no laws broken” there will be more and more damaging news, as we are already finding. Johnson’s character and the evident chaos of the current No 10 operation mean there is hardly likely to be a shortage… Read more »

L Edwards
L Edwards
2 years ago
Reply to  L Edwards

I too would query “earnest apology” and wasn’t impressed in the slightest btw

Erisian
Erisian
2 years ago

That wasn’t an appology. That was the insincere grovelling of a dog, who having taken a dump on the sofa just wants the shouting and disapproval to stop.
To be fair, it included some of the body language, and a few of the correct noises, but at heart it was just a very bad liar, lying badly as usual.

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